


Articles of Faith

by iiii



Series: Incidents in Transit [6]
Category: Firefly, Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-20
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 03:51:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/973985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/iiii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal's dinner, spoiled.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Articles of Faith

"Jamie, our new passengers, Dean Winchester, and his brother Sam."

"Nice to meet you."

The Winchesters failed to note Jamie's uncanny resemblance to Margaret Cho. They did, however, notice that she was herding them to seats at opposite ends of the table. Sam raised an eyebrow. Dean shrugged. Then they got a look at the place settings.

"Sam! They put out the good silver, just for us." It was just for them; the other places were set with chopsticks and mismatched tinware.

"Oh. How hospitable." Sam weighed the fork at his place in his hand, then flicked a tine and listened to the tone. 

Dean turned the spoon from his setting over to check the maker's mark, and found a row of Chinese characters. "Coin silver?"

"I don't think it's even that pure," Sam said. He handed the fork to Kaylee. "What do you think?"

She looked down at the fork in her hand, bewildered. "Uh... the pattern is pretty?" She handed the fork back to Sam and sat down.

"I suppose it is." 

Jamie poured water all around and, once everyone was seated, offered a toast to absent friends. Jayne rolled his eyes, Mal raised an eyebrow, and the other adults all looked at Jamie some degree of askance, but they raised the toast and drank. Simon started passing dishes.

Conversation began with a recap of the children's day. After tai chi was interrupted, Simon had kept the children entertained with games and lessons. River, he said, sounding surprised, had taught the little ones a new song, about playmates. One he'd never heard before. And, what with missing breakfast, they’d eaten the entire box of crackers from the playroom and he’d forgotten to replace it. 

Kaylee fetched a fresh box out of stores, set it by the aft hatch, and returned to the table. “Victor, can you…?”

“Surely.” 

Victor had spent the morning reading schoolwork. First a section of Journey to the West, which he recounted at his mother’s request. Jayne and the captain interrupted his recital with what seemed to be a long-running dispute over which dramatic adaptation was the shiniest. Then history, incidents in the settlement of Sihnon. Simon encouraged Victor to question the motives attributed to General Lao by the standard text while Jayne and Mal bickered about Monkey in the background.

At the first lull, Sam asked Victor, “Can I borrow your history book? I’d like to get caught up.”

Simon started to answer, but Victor spoke over him. “You can read anything of mine you want, in exchange.”

“Exchange for what?”

“Chest scans.”

“What?” Mal and Simon chorused.

“I want to know if they’re really them. Tattoos and scars can be faked. Rib engravings, not so much. Chest scans will tell the tale.”

“No,” Jamie said, “Chest scans could prove it’s _not_ them. A positive result still leaves open other possibilities.”

“Other… oh. They could be really dedicated con men, you mean.”

“Or really dedicated monomaniacs.” 

“Or some other mortal men that some angel wanted to hide.”

“Could be a birth anomaly.”

“Could be angels themselves.”

River giggled.

Sam, having spent Jamie’s lesson in critical thinking conversing with Dean in their private eyebrow language, said, “Non-invasive, right?” Victor nodded. “Deal, then. X-rays for history.”

“You’ve gotten ahead of yourself, young man. What do I get for doing the scans?” Simon asked.

“A week’s garbage?”

“Make it two.”

“Done.” Victor sat back, looking smug.

Dean caught up with the conversation. “Wait, ‘angels’?” 

“Jamie here’s a _Hunter_. She believes in angels.”

“I’m not a Hunter. Mal just loves getting that wrong. I’m a Fangirl, and he knows it.”

“Fangirl?”

“A disciple of the Winchester Gospels. I don’t hunt, _Mal_.”

Dean looked appalled. “A disciple. Of the Winchester Gospels. Really.”

“Really.”

“You believe that… that…”

“I believe that Chuck Shurley wrote one hundred and four novels about Sam and Dean Winchester. I believe that there were no dogs in waking quarters on the _Brundtland_ before the mutiny started. I believe that the mutiny on the _Shinawatra_ didn’t end until all the mutineers were decapitated. I believe that all attempts to settle Newhall failed until a team of Orthodox priests went down to the surface and invoked Holy Fire.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Neither does she.”

“Blinker yourself all you like, Mal, but there’s no call to be a disgracious lout in company.”

“You’re despoiling my dinner with your monster-and-ghost claptrap. Seems call enough.”

Sam cleared his throat. “Can we get a look at those Gospels, too?”

“Already part of the deal,” Victor said.

“Good. But you’re wrong,” Sam told Jamie. “What an angel can inscribe, an angel can erase. Scans won’t prove anything either way.”

“We’ll see.”


End file.
